Capitol Insider: Special Statehouse access has a price: $25

Sunday

Dec 1, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 1, 2013 at 4:23 PM

Paying for access is hardly a new phenomenon around the Statehouse. Interest groups and lobbyists shell out big campaign dollars for their voices to be heard. But the joke at the Statehouse these days is that lobbyists literally are paying for access - $25.

Paying for access is hardly a new phenomenon around the Statehouse. Interest groups and lobbyists shell out big campaign dollars for their voices to be heard.

But the joke at the Statehouse these days is that lobbyists literally are paying for access — $25.

As part of the new Statehouse security measures, lobbyists and credentialed media members can get new badges that grant access to certain entrances and allow them to pass checkpoints without having bags searched. A badge costs a lobbyist $25, and the receipt from the Statehouse Museum Shop simply labels it as “Statehouse Access.”

“I didn’t think I was that kind of lobbyist,” one joked.

“I wish it only cost $25,” joked another.

Is this a liberal idea?

MoveOn.org is gathering input on whether to support a petition seeking a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, suggested by a member of the left-leaning group: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”

MoveOn says its website allows anyone to start an online petition and share it with friends and neighbors to build support for their cause. Depending on how members vote, the group might throw its support behind the issue.

More than three dozen groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Gov. John Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid to 275,000 low-income, uninsured Ohioans.

Not so much love for the six Republican members of the Ohio House and two local Right to Life chapters who filed suit in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to block Medicaid expansion. No amicus briefs have been submitted supporting their position that the Controlling Board overstepped its authority when it voted last month to accept $2.5 billion in federal aid at Kasich’s request to cover expansion costs.

Final briefs in the case are due on Monday, and the court is not expected to hear oral arguments, meaning a decision could come at any time.

For those keeping track at home, here are the ideas floating around the legislature to use the $400 million Ohio will gain by doing the Medicaid expansion starting on Jan. 1:

• ?Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, wants to use it for a 4 percent state income-tax cut.

• ?Reps. Ron Gerberry, D-Austintown, and Terry Boose, R-Norwalk, are proposing giving it to local governments.

• ?Rep. Dave Hall, R-Millersburg, wants to make payments on money borrowed from the federal government for unemployment benefits.